Forgetting
by Catherine Chen
Summary: She has been cursed to a monstrous life of horror and loneliness. A life without love. Every day more of her humanity slips away. But a chance encounter with a handsome stranger brings hope. A foolish hope or her ultimate salvation? Yet how can she put him in danger long enough to tell?
1. Chapter 1

Not sure what's up with me today. I'm in a drabble kind of mood. Let me know what you think. Is this enough or do you want a full story? Would you like to hear more from Medusa or should I expand to drabbles on other characters?

As always, PLEASE REVIEW!

Much love, Cat

xxxxx

Every day a little bit more of her old self slipped away. It was becoming more and more difficult to remember a time when men had called her beautiful, when she had felt beautiful. If anyone knew, they would probably accuse her of being as vain as ever, her punishment powerless in the face of her great pride. But that was not it. She'd gotten too used to the looks of fear and horror to think of herself as beautiful anymore. Sometimes she would study the stone figures, looking for a glimpse of understanding in their lifeless eyes. She looked in vain. No man would ever be able to look past the monster she had become.

The only ones she talked to now were her sisters, and the snakes. She sometimes thought she would go mad with the loneliness, and then with the voices. _The dreadful hissing night and day…_ Over the years she had learned to interpret the sounds, used that knowledge to tame the creatures tethered to her scalp and stop them from trying to bite her. But they still tormented her. Sometimes she could swear they spoke to her, whispering evil thoughts in their sinister, unnatural voices. They wanted food but they also wanted violence. She found herself occasionally fighting the urge to lure someone into her and her sisters' presence. Yet her last shreds of humanity held her back. She wasn't sure how much longer she could resist.

When she lamented the loss of her old self, it was not her beauty she mourned, it was her humanity. Her greatest punishment was being robbed of the possibility for compassion. Even the unworthiest of mortals might expect pity from his fellows in spite of his crimes. She had lost even the ability to hope.


	2. Chapter 2

Hi chickadees! I'm sorry I've been gone so long. It's taken a heck of a long time to write this chapter. It was very difficult to keep it from sounding clunky especially with so many assignments due this semester. Hopefully you like what I've managed to come up with. And don't worry, we'll be getting into the action soon.

**As always, PLEASE REVIEW!**

**Much love, Cat**

xxxxx

**Please do me a favor and check out my other story "Wolf Wolf".**

xxxxx

_She couldn't do it. _"I won't," Medusa whispered fiercely to the snakes haloing her pale face. They hissed angrily in response as if they had understood. The first few years after being cursed, she had begun to believe that she had learned to communicate with them. But then, it might just be another symptom of her growing madness. Even now she was still unsure. She paid no mind to their snapping teeth. They almost never bit her anymore.

She stifled a sigh as she wandered around the empty caverns trying to ignore the beginnings of a headache. Medusa had never imagined that it was possible to feel this lonely. She was used to living in relative isolation. As a priestess of Athena she had devoted her life to a higher purpose to the exclusion of sociality and friendships. But even in that role, she had still been able to talk with people. She had a purpose. People didn't fear her and loathe her and turn to stone in her presence.

Sthenno and Euryale didn't understand when she tried to explain it to them. They had been born Gorgones, "terrible ones." They gloried in their power and strength, the fear they inspired. They did not have fights with their serpents. Their snakes were merely an extension of themselves and their will. It was only Medusa, an anomaly in a family of monsters, who mourned her memories of mortality.

As always, she had been left at home while her sisters went out hunting. There was a bit of danger for her, being mortal despite her hideous appearance, but they all knew it was a thinly-veiled excuse. She had too much pride to scavenge and steal food, too much delicacy to kill the creatures they ate or the humans who might try and fight back. She would prepare and cook the food when they returned but she could not bring herself to kill.

Her sisters had been gone for a few days, much longer than they had all planned. Knowing them, they had decided to have a bit of sport and terrorize some mortals. Her snakes were hungry. They were used to eating scraps from whatever her sisters brought back and refused to share the fruits and plants she had managed to find in the forest at night.

Yet if she were honest with herself, _and who else was there to be honest with_, she shared her snakes' craving for meat. Ever since the change occurred, she seemed to have acquired a taste for flesh. Despite her best attempts, she couldn't help but savor the way her teeth sank into a tender side of beef as a bit of warm blood oozed onto her tongue. She shivered thinking about it.

"No," she repeatedly, with a little less conviction than before, "I won't do it."


End file.
